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Does Bimini Road Lead to The Lost Civilization of Atlantis?

Off the coast of Bimini lies an ancient stone formation submerged beneath crystal blue waters. The mysterious path makes many wonder if it is remnants of the mythical lost land of Atlantis.

Researchers, geologists, archaeologists, and scientists alike have visited and studied the huge, flat stones off the coast of Bimini, known as the Bimini Road . They have tried for years to discern whether the limestone blocks are a natural phenomenon, or evidence of an ancient lost civilization.

Bimini is an island in the Bahamas, part of a chain of islands 50 miles east of Miami, Florida. A mere 20 feet down in the blue waters off the coast, a stone path can be found; large, flat rocks cut at right angles, seemingly set purposefully in straight lines. This impressive formation stretches half a mile along, with a pronounced hook at one end. The stones can measure up to 13 feet (4 metres) across.

Strange Slab “Found by a research team off the coast of Bimini.” Photograph by Zig Zag Productions and Ross Goodlass - National Geographic

According to Unsolved Mysteries in the World , “The origin and meaning of ‘Bimini’ are unknown. However, the name appears in the Ancient Egyptian language and Baminini, which means, ‘Homage (ini) to the Soul (ba) of Min.’ Min was the Egyptians’ divine protector of travelers on far-off journeys, a particularly appropriate god to be worshiped at distant Bimini, if indeed the island had been visited by voyagers from the Nile Valley.”

In 1968, subsea archaeologist Joseph Mason Valentine and his diving party encountered the ‘paved’ road, now called the Bimini Road or Bimini Wall. After their initial discovery, the site was visited often by innumerable divers, researchers and scientists, further revealing the existence of two additional linear features laying nearly parallel to the enigmatic path.

Unexplained Mysteries writes of the connection between the discovery and American mysticist Edgar Cayce, who was said to predict future events during trances. “Another curious element of this mystery is a prediction made in 1938 by Edgar Cayce : ‘A portion of the temples may yet be discovered under the slime of ages and sea water near Bimini… Expect it in ‘68 or ‘69 – not so far away.” The Bimini Road was located in 1968, some propose as a fulfillment of the prediction that the history of Atlantis would be revealed to the world.

Ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Plato was first to write of Atlantis. His records of a cursed island out of favour with the gods is referred to as a parable, warning that hubris and the abuse of power may be the undoing of a civilization. But what if the story is more than a teaching tool? What if there truly existed an advanced ancient civilization which was lost to the seas and wiped from our history? Since Plato’s tale of Atlantis, many have searched for the doomed city’s whereabouts.

Illustration by Sir Gerald Hargreaves showing a utopian scene of the mythical land of Atlantis ( National Geographic )

The existence of a buried Atlantis is possible, and some would insist likely, as throughout history people and civilizations around the world have suffered terrible cataclysms of tsunamis, volcanic explosions, earthquakes and other disasters, and disappeared from the pages of history until rediscovered centuries later. Could Atlantis have suffered a similar fate?

Skeptics think not, and dismiss the connection between the Bimini Road and Atlantis. Consensus among conventional geologists who drilled core samples of the Bimini rocks is that it’s a natural phenomenon. They explain that the beachrock has been weathered by erosion, the tides scouring and eroding lines and edges into the limestone along natural joints, as it does so in other locations around the globe. Further, they suggest that any ‘tool marks’ found on site are not evidence of ancient stoneworking, but instead the result of tourists and investigators chipping away at the rocks for souvenirs or research.

Not all have been satisfied with the mainstream theories, and expeditions have been mounted to solve the riddle of the Bimini Road.

Sci Fi Channel did an investigation and documentary on the underwater formation in 2006. Wikipedia notes that Quest for Atlantis: Startling New Secrets focused on the legend of Atlantis, highlighting the Bimini Road. A team of researchers dived at Bimini Bay, and reported discovering “an entire second layer of square-cut rocks with similar dimensions beneath the stones.” This suggested to the researchers that the ‘road’ may have been part of a larger wall or water dock.

Were the stones carefully and purposefully placed by an advanced civilization which was plunged into obscurity by cataclysm, or did the rocks erode into perfect shapes through the actions of time and the sea? Like the Bimini Road, the mystery endures.

Featured image: A photograph of the so-called Bimini Road. Image source .

Comments

I have seen the site in person [in 1989] and agree with those who claim it to be artificial even if all or most the stone was originally beach rock. l think it was moved to fit into the currently seen pattern.lt closely resembles Mediterranean jetties from the lron and possibly Bronze ages.There are a few places with more than one layer of stones and the claim that some was removed in the 1920's. The latter question aside most of the Medterranean examples also used beach rock in construction.But the bedrock of the seafloor was dated to roughly 15,000 bp so the road wall must be younger than that. One problem however is that it is implied that the bedrock is a marine limestone formed under water but 15,000 years ago local sealevels were several hundred feet lower than today.[300-425 feet approximately.The road/wall is only about 19 feet down.]
The c14 dates for the blocks themselves vary quite a bit and do not all correspond to when the local sea level would place them in the intertidal zone [6-7 feet depth] where beachrock forms.On the other hand if it was a jetty the sealevel aught to have been high enough that ships would not scrape the bottom.Most ancient ships had a rather shallow draft but that still requires a few feet.So, sealevels aught to have been maybe 9-12 feet below those of today.Based upon other parts of the world that suggests the last 5000 years roughly and most probably one of the colder phazes of the Bronze or iron ages when sealevels were between about 9-18 feet lower.All this is far later than Plato's literal dates for the demise of Atlantis as well as Edgar Caycees. lt doesn't entirely rule out theories that Atlantis existed during the Bronze age ca. 3200-1200 bc..lt could fit historical Greeks, Egyptians, Minoans or Phoenicians as well.Any Atlantean remains at the literal dates aught to be far deeper.Were the road/wall really that old it would have nothing to do with harbor works as it appears to.

Various dives have found what were reportedly small supports beneath the stones described as 'wedge stones' or 'prop stones', but they were not verified through official investigations. The SciFi Channel dive said they located another layer of cut stones beneath the visible top layer, but the reports never went futher than the documentary. Beyond that, there's been no artifacts such as pottery or other evidence of use by previous civilizations that I've heard of.

that something was going on down below what today is the ocean level. Off the coast of Cuba they've located some pretty amazing structures.
youtube: Could This Be Atlantis? Pyramids Found in Waters Off Cuba

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